A woman believed to be part of an organized crime ring is facing charges after she allegedly went on a luxury spending spree at Aventura Mall with stolen credit card information, authorities said.
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Yu Zheng, 43, was arrested Friday on charges including uttering a forged instrument, credit card forgery, unlawful possession of a stolen credit or debit card, organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, and fraudulent use or possession of personal identification, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
According to an arrest report, an investigation began after a person contacted police saying her mother’s credit card info was being used without authorization at multiple stores in the mall.
The mother still had the card and hadn’t authorized anyone to use the account, the daughter said.
One unauthorized purchase involved a $636 belt at Ferragamo, and the manager of the store said a woman attempted to make the purchase with multiple credit cards stored on her phone until one was finally approved.
The manager described the suspect and what she was wearing and officers began searching for the woman.
A short time later, the victim’s daughter reported another unauthorized purchase of over $3,100 at Louis Vuitton.
Using the description from the manager, officers found the suspect, Zheng, who was seen walking “at a hurried pace while keeping her head down and attempting to avoid eye contact with law enforcement,” the report said.
Zheng was given commands to stop and eventually complied and was detained.
Investigators were able to obtain surveillance footage showed her entering Louis Vuitton and making the purchase, and Louis Vuitton employees said she had repeatedly attempted to use several digital credit cards on her phone until one worked, the report said.
She was also seen inside Bloomingdale’s trying to make a purchase of over $3,869, the report said.
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“Similar to the previous transactions, Zheng repeatedly attempted to process multiple digital credit cards on her cellular phone until one successfully completed the purchase,” the report said.
Surveillance footage also showed Zheng dropping off fraudulently obtained merchandise in a vehicle driven by an unknown man, the report said.
“Based on my training and experience investigating organized fraud and financial crimes, individuals involved in these offenses commonly operate as part of organized criminal groups rather than acting alone,” an officer wrote in the report. “These groups frequently obtain stolen financial information through methods such as identity theft, account compromises, phishing schemes, data breaches, skimming devices, or purchases of stolen account information on criminal marketplaces.”
The report said once compromised account information is obtained, it’s commonly loaded onto digital wallets to make contactless payments while the legitimate cardholder remains in possession of the physical card.
The fraudsters make smaller test purchases and if the info works they “immediately escalate to high-dollar luxury merchandise purchases” before the fraud is detected and account disabled, which was the case with Zheng, the report said.
Zheng, who is listed in the report as living in Flushing, New York, was booked into jail.
The report added that Zheng has an extensive criminal history involving fraud in multiple jurisdictions across the U.S., as well as arrests for prostitution, human trafficking and federal criminal offenses.
The unidentified accomplice with the vehicle remains outstanding but the investigation was ongoing, the report said.
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